This week in WoW History: Highmaul, Dragon Soul, Activision Blizzard

Hey everyone, and welcome to another bit of WoW History! Every week, we look down at important events that happened in WoW (or Blizzard!) for that week.\r\rThis week, together with the release of Antorus (check out or guides by FatBossTV if you need help progressing!), we have Highmaul and Dragon Soul! As well as some specific Blizzard news, like Ghostcrawler leaving and the massive success of WoW's Day One sales! Let's get started then :)\r\r\r2014\r\rDecember 2nd, 2014 - Highmaul Opens\rOn this day, Altomaglio, Warlords of Draenor's first raid, was opened! Working as a mini raid like Segrete Mogu'shan and later Incubo di Smeraldo, this raid served to help up the bridge to Fonderia dei Roccianera and get the players started with raiding in Warlords.\r\r\rIt's entrance is located in northwest Nagrand in Draenor, and served as the seat of power of the Ogre Empire in the continent.\rThe raid had 4 mandatory encounters (Kargath Manotagliente, Twin Ogron, Ko'ragh, Imperatore Mar'gok) and 3 optional encounters (Il Macellaio, Sporafelce, Tectus).\rAlso like the first raids in Mists of Pandaria and Legion, Highmaul did not drop raid gear - but it dropped gear strong enough to help players advance into the Blackrock Foundry, once it was released at a later date.\rImperatore Mar'gok had a special final phase on Mythic difficulty, where the Draenor version of Cho'gall would appear and finish off the Imperator. \rEven though Imperator Mar'gok was the final boss, Tectus was widely considered to be the most frustrating boss in the instance, so much that it's quote "RISE, MOUNTAINS!" became a meme with the site tectus.rocks.\r\r\rCheck out our Highmaul Survival Guide!\r\r2013 \r\rNovember 27th, 2013\r\rOn this day, Greg Street, also known as Ghostcrawler, left his Lead Designs System position at Blizzard Entertainment. On his departure announcement, he mentioned receiving a opportunity that made him make the very hard decision of leaving Blizzard. A few months later, this opportunity was discovered - he became the Lead Game Designer for Riot Games, the owner of League of Legends. \r\rWe hope you're enjoying your Holy Priest to this day, Greg! Here is his departure letter:\r\r\rYou know that part at the end of raid night when the final boss is dead and you\u2019re done handing out loot and everyone kind of goes their separate ways? Yeah, this is one of those times.\r\rWe just came off of a great BlizzCon. We had so many different games to talk about, and we were thrilled at the reception of Warlords of Draenor. It was great to meet or reconnect with so many of you. I love BlizzCon dearly, which makes it so hard to tell you that this will be my last one, or at least my last one up on stage. An opportunity has come my way, and I have made the very tough decision to move on from Blizzard.\r\rI wanted to thank all of you for being a part of this grand quest. I have said a hundred times that having passionate gamers, including the angry ones, is a far better place to be than having a community that doesn\u2019t care. You all care. Like us, you want the game to be the best that it can be. So I ask you to keep on providing your feedback. I promise (and I rarely promise!) that the developers care very much about what you have to say.\r\rI\u2019ll be out there, and I can\u2019t imagine it will be that hard to find me.\r\rHugs,\rGhostcrawler\r\rP.S. No, you can\u2019t have a pony. Or a moose. Or a mantis shrimp. Or a tardigrade. Or a crab. Keep trying though.\r\rP.P.S. I play a Holy Priest.\r\r\r(Ironically, we did end up getting the so promised moose, with the Redini del Custode del Bosco.)\r\rAnd check out when we officially reported this!\r\r2011 \r\rNovember 29th, 2011- Patch 4.3 Released\rOn this day, patch 4.3 was released! The Hour of Twilight, the final Cataclysm patch, is considered one the patches that had the most changes to WoW. Highlights include:\r\r\rNew Dungeons - Fine dei Tempi, Pozzo dell'Eternità, Ora del Crepuscolo: Travel through time in a new adventure to retrieve the Dragon Soul from the past, and prepare yourselves for the final strike against the Destroyer himself!\rNew Raid - Anima del Drago: Rally with Thrall and the Dragon Aspects at Wyrmrest Temple in a desperate attempt to finish Deathwing using the artifact from the past!\rNew Legendary - Fangs of the Father: The most experienced Rogues play a crucial role by manipulating events from within the shadows. Players who manage to enact Irathion's machinations will be awarded with mystical daggers that become stronger the more the players helps Wrathion. At their height, empowered by both the Old Gods and the Black Dragonflight, they become Golad, Crepuscolo degli Aspetti and Tiriosh, Incubo delle Ere.\rRaid Finder: This new grouping feature allows players to quickly and easily pick-up a raid group for a specifically tuned version of Dragon Soul. Now a staple of the WoW experience, every raid since then has had a Raid Finder difficulty.\rTransmogrification: Have you ever regretted picking up that upgrade because it didn't match your armor at all? That is no longer an issue! With Transmogrification, you can magically change your gear's appearance without modifying it's status. You've never looked so badass!\rVoid Storage: A new special bank set by the Ethereals, now you can free even more bag space by setting aside your most coveted gear!\r\r\rCheck out our Patch 4.3 Survival Guide!\r\r2007\rDecember 2nd, 2007\rOn this day, Blizzard announced it's upcoming merger with Activision, to become Activision Blizzard! The merger itself had no effect on the Blizzard brand, as stated below:\r\r\rWe're pleased to announce that along with the other companies that make up Vivendi Games, we are merging with Activision to form a new global entertainment organization called Activision Blizzard (pending shareholder and regulatory approval). Similar to our previous arrangement, Blizzard Entertainment will now operate as a division of this new organization. \r\rThere will be no changes to our games, our websites, our personnel, or our day-to-day operations as a result of the deal. However, this combining of resources will benefit all of the companies involved and will further strengthen Blizzard's ability to continue delivering high-quality content for our players around the world for many years to come. To learn more about this exciting new development, please read our Activision Blizzard FAQ.\r\r\rYou can check out the Activision Blizzard FAQ on this archived link.\r\r2004\rNovember 27th, 2004\rBlizzard has announced their record sales on Day 1 of World of Warcraft. Some players were reporting lag issues on the first few days, but it was for a good reason: WoW sold a shattering (estimated) 250,000 copies on Day one! Retailers were running out of copies as players were staying in line for hours to obtain the new sensation game.\r\rYou can look at the full press release below. You can also check the original URL for more press releases over the years!\r\r\rIRVINE, Calif. - November 24, 2004 - Blizzard Entertainment\u00ae today announced that World of Warcraft\u00ae has become an instant success, achieving epic sales figures in less than 24 hours. Launched Tuesday, November 23rd, the company's subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) sold-through to consumers an estimated 250,000* copies of the game. At retailers across the country, players lined up for blocks at midnight to purchase the game, which sold out in many stores nationwide after only one day on store shelves. \r\rIn just the first day alone, over 200,000 players created World of Warcraft accounts, and over 100,000 were already playing the game concurrently as of 5:00 p.m. PST on Tuesday. The account-creation and concurrent-user populations are both record numbers for a MMORPG on its first day of launch, making World of Warcraft the fastest-growing online game in history. World of Warcraft is expected to continue to shatter records and achieve a record-setting week-one population in the days ahead. With dozens of World of Warcraft servers already filled to capacity, Blizzard is deploying additional servers rapidly to match the growing player base. \r\r"We had a lot of confidence in World of Warcraft, but the success on day one far exceeded our expectations," said Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment. "We are extremely happy that players are enjoying our game, and we are doing everything we can to meet the demand and maintain a fun and smooth game experience for everyone playing." \r\rRetailers across North America, including Wal-Mart, EB, GameStop, and others are reporting that hundreds of their stores have sold out of World of Warcraft due to the demand. If consumers have not yet purchased their copy of World of Warcraft, they are advised to call ahead to make sure their store has copies still in stock. \r\r"World of Warcraft has once again shown that Blizzard consistently delivers the best games in the industry," said Robert McKenzie, vice president of merchandising at GameStop. "It sold better than any other PC game this year - in fact, World of Warcraft enjoyed the best day-one sell-through GameStop has ever seen on a PC title!" \r\rBlizzard Entertainment and its retail partners are expecting all remaining supplies of World of Warcraft to sell out soon. Meanwhile, the company is working diligently to increase server capacity to accommodate the growing number of players connecting to the game. As the additional servers are brought online and proven stable, additional copies of World of Warcraft will be made available at retail. Blizzard will announce the availability of those additional games as soon as they are on retail shelves. \r\r\rDo you have any memories of Highmaul and Dragon Soul? Or have you spent time in lines trying to buy a WoW expansion? Let us know in the comments!\r\rAnd see you next week ;)

Commenti

Commento di TheAmadaun

on 2017-11-29T23:44:20-06:00

Dragon Soul was a meh raid, but transmog\/DMF update\/LFR introduction were great! Plus Fangs of the Father had some great questing (and Wrathion was a great character until Blizz dropped the ball on him this expansion).

Commento di TehLucario

on 2017-11-30T01:24:51-06:00

... Now blizz owes us a Tardegrade

Commento di FuryDr00d

on 2017-11-30T04:58:16-06:00

The raid had 4 mnadatory enconters\r\rYou mean mandatory encounters?

Commento di murban

on 2017-11-30T14:51:33-06:00

My roommates bought the game first, and I just said "I'll play it when you guys are not playing." They didn't stop playing, so I had to go buy my own. A Collector's Edition was sitting on the shelf, and when I realized it had a DVD installer instead of 4 CD-ROM, I was sold. Plus, free map so I knew where everything was and I could read that art book while the patches downloaded.

Commento di Acoleski

on 2017-11-30T18:12:33-06:00

I remember we had a thigh knit guild during pretty much both Cataclysm och Mists. 7 of my friends, including me and 3 randoms. Never have I had so much fun raiding.

Although I only joined when someone else had to drop out due to what ever reason. I was the farmer of the guild, what ever potions, flasks or food buffs they required for their raids, I was the one who farmed it for them. I remember all of us went out fishing when we had gotten up to 9,000 \/ 10,000 fish caught for the guild achievement. Iirc I asked if they wanted to help with the last 1k fishies. It became a race, majestic duels were held if 2 guildies went to the same school of fish.

I also joined their raiding nights a bit in to dragon soul. Still remember my friend who was a rogue and our burst DPS fights. He always said "When I get those daggers, you're done!" The reaction when I still managed to out burst him, at least in the beginning when he was still getting used to the new daggers.

People may say what ever they want about cata or mists, that they were lackluster or that mist was a "childish" expansion trying to pander to a larger audience.

No matter, I've never had as much fun playing this game as I had back in cata and mists.